Zimmer Gets a Chief Medical Officer – For the First Time

Since 1927, when a small aluminum splint company opened its doors in Warsaw, Indiana’s medical alley, Zimmer Biomet has relied on thousands of stellar physician advisors and mentors to help make it the leading supplier of hip and knee arthroplasty systems in the world.

Ninety-two years later, in 2019, Zimmer Biomet has hired a single person to serve as the company’s Chief Medical Officer.

His name is Andrew Freiberg, M.D. and he is the renown orthopedic surgeon who has led the hip and knee service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston for over 20 years.

Dr. Freiberg, an expert in adult reconstructive surgery with an emphasis on hip and knee arthroplasty, says he wasn’t looking for a change. But change came to his door.

He told OTW, “The company wanted someone who had an active practice and was a leader in the realm of education. The role they crafted involves my ensuring that the perspective of the surgeon and patient is always taken into consideration.”

“Zimmer Biomet has a new CEO, orthopedic group president, and many of the management team members are new as well. These individuals come from medical device or pharmaceutical companies that have chief medical officers, so they said, ‘We need one too.’”

“This position has three major components. The first is the education of surgeons, residents, fellows, and even the sales force. Second, I will be involved in quality and safety evaluations and health hazard evaluation of medical devices, something I have done for many years outside of industry. Third, and possibly most exciting, is that I get to participate in product innovation, licensing, and acquisition as they relate to new technology.”

“I think it is very helpful that Zimmer Biomet now has an orthopedic surgeon in a leadership role who can communicate across all of the different business units. And since I know a lot of surgeon-colleagues they are honest with their opinions and don’t hold back.”

“Orthopedic surgeons as a group tend to think of their careers in a linear fashion, i.e., ’I am going to do this for X number of years and then retire or do something different.’ I am 55 and some people would say, ‘What are you doing? You’re in the prime of your practice life.’ But the fact is that if I were to wait until the age of 70, I might not be as flexible or dynamic.”

Dr. Freiberg earned his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and he graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He then completed a General Surgery Internship and the Orthopedic Training Program at the University of Michigan Hospitals.

While a senior resident at the University of Michigan, Dr. Freiberg did a rotation at MGH and he went on to complete the Hip and Implant Fellowship there. He then returned to the University of Michigan, where he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and was later named Chief of Adult Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Michigan Hospitals and Chief of Orthopedics at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center.

In 2000, Dr. Freiberg joined MGH as Chief of the Adult Reconstructive Surgery Service. Most recently, he served at MGH as the Interim Department Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Chief of the Center for Hip and Knee Replacement. He was also an Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School.